March 24, 2014 marks the 25th anniversary of the Exxon Valdez oil spill, which spewed 11 million gallons of crude oil into Alaska's Prince William Sound. The disaster was the worst oil spill in U.S. history until British Petroleum's (BP's) Deepwater Horizon spill in 2011.
The Prince William Sound is a remote area of the world, which makes it more difficult to clean up environmental disasters. Even today, it's still possible to dig holes in beaches along the Prince William Sound and find pockets of oil left over from 1989.
The spill affected both commercial fishing and Alaskan Native food sources. Commercial fisherman suffered an enormous loss due to fish life lost from the oil coating the Sound. Alaskan Native communities that depend on the Sound for food have had to endure a severe food shortage. Even today, the herring population has yet to return to pre-spill numbers.
The impact of the spill on other wildlife was just as devastating. 250,000 sea birds died, along with hundreds of otters, bald eagles, dolphins, and orcas. The sea lost countless shellfish that form the foundation of the ecosystem. Twenty years after the Exxon Valdez, remnants of the spill still remain in deep, intertidal sands, slowly poisoning many of the birds and sea creatures that live there.
-Excerpted from "Man-made Disasters" by Cat Astrofi
Based on the text, is it reasonable to infer that the effects of the Deepwater Horizon spill will be felt decades later?
no, because it is a long enough time for wild life, commercial ships, and Native Alaskans to recover
yes, because today there are still no birds, fish, or sea mammals living in Prince William Sound
no, because corporate dedication to cleaning the area will continue until the area fully recovers
yes, because the effects of the Exxon Valdez spill still remain over twenty years later